Baxter is back to his best and sets a county record

JOSH BAXTER was the pick of the Reading Athletic Club winners at last Sunday's county championships, picking up two golds and setting a county record in the process.

Baxter showed he had completely recovered from a broken leg suffered playing rugby over the winter when he smashed a 19-year-old county record with a scintillating run of 11.6 secs in the under-15 100 metres.

And it was also thought that he had set a second county best when winning the 200 metres, but the record in the programme turned out to be for the girls' event.

Those performances look set to hand Baxter a place on the Berkshire team for the forthcoming Inter-Counties Championships.

The senior and junior age groups have the CAU Inter-Counties Championships at Bedford on May 25 and 26, while the under-20s and under-15s have the SEAA Inter-Counties Championships at Abingdon on August 24.

Despite the superb facilities at the Thames Valley Athletics Centre, with the only real drawback being the constant noise of aircraft that have just taken off from Heathrow drowning out the announcement of results, only three new county records were set.

Baxter's was one of two in the under-15 boys' age group, the other falling to M Townsend of host club WSEH who added 23cm to the 18-year-old discus record with a throw of 40m87.

And in the junior men's pole vault T Tucker of WSEH cleared 4m00 to add 10cm to the previous mark.

In the same age group, Michael Dyer completed a field events double for Reading with a high jump of 1m89 and a javelin throw of 46m90.

Guy Perryman continues to defy his advancing years and won the shot with a putt of 12m94 while in the junior men's 400 metres Philip Wren won by a street in 51.4 secs.

Robert Moles had a comfortable victory in the under-17 400 metres with a time of 55.1 secs while Kelvin Callender won the under-15 long jump for Reading with a leap of 5m19.

In the ladies and girls events there were no new championship records set, but there were some keenly contested races.

One of the best was the under-15 girls' 1500 metres. Three girls broke away from the main pack with Franchesca Devereux of WSEH forcing the pace.

On the third lap she pulled away and at the bell had a 10-metre lead over Amy Bond of Reading.

In the balance But Bond closed the gap down the back straight on the final lap, before sprinting past Devereux for victory in a time of 5:03.5.

The under-17 300 metres between Reading AC athletes Sophie Mabbett and Jasmine Gray was in the balance until the final 50 metres when Mabbett found some extra speed for victory in 42.5 secs.

And she then completed a double with a leap of 10m47 giving her first place in the triple jump.

C Monye of WSEH sprinted to a good under-15 age group double with times of 12.8 secs in the 100 metres and 26.4 secs in the 200 metres.

Jenna Wyatt continued her good hurdling form for Reading with her time of 47.7 secs enough for victory in the under-17 300 metres hurdles.

Meanwhile Rachel Woods took the under-15 800 metres for Reading, with her time of 2:25.6 enough for victory after a close-fought battle with Emily Wilkins of WSEH.

Lizzie Goddard looked a class above the rest in both the under-15 girls' shot putt and discus, winning both events with distances of 9m24 and 23m39.

Team-mate Lizzie Glover was second to Goddard in the discus but won gold in the javelin with a throw of 23m86.

Tracy Merrill made her first appearance of the season and struck gold in the junior women's shot with a putt of 8m13 and a discus throw of 27m74.

Julie Wilson was also a triple gold medallist for Reading when she threw the senior women's javelin out to 24m45, hurled the hammer 22m71 and putted the shot out to a distance of 8m04.

SUNDAY'S Young Athletes League match has been moved from Wimbledon to Sutton Arena, Carshalton, due to vandalism. Athletes should see Lee or Hazel for more information.